Browsing by Subject "Naturalization"
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Item Non-citizen soldiers, veterans, and their families : defense personnel policy and the principles of American politics(2010-12) Lamm, Jennifer Elizabeth; Leal, David L.; Tulis, Jeffrey K.This report examines the place of non-citizen soldiers, veterans, and their families in U.S. political and civil life. Historically, military service has allowed marginalized groups to earn their social and political status as equal citizens. Part one of this report explores why, despite this history, recent legislative changes, and a 2002 Executive Order eliminating the legal and bureaucratic barriers to naturalization, less than forty percent of the non-citizen servicemen and women today actually acquire U.S. citizenship while on active duty. Part two examines the political and policy context surrounding a soldier's decisions to naturalize. It suggests that some soldiers may be “undocumented”; they forgo naturalization to protect themselves and their families. Part three discusses the legal, political, and normative implications of current policy. Some practices, such as the deportation of alien veterans, challenge the foundations of the American political order. The place of undocumented soldiers and veterans raises important issues about civic obligation, the cultural narratives that define membership in and service to the state, and the ruling political collations in which these narratives find support.Item Pathways to citizenship : the political incorporation of Latino immigrants(2015-05) Corral, Álvaro José; Leal, David L.; Rivera, MichaelThis study explores the determinants of political incorporation of Latino immigrants in the U.S. from multiple perspectives. The objective is to identify the factors that promote political incorporation along a pathway to citizenship--specifically, those that promote naturalization; lead to a speedier citizenship acquisition process; and are associated with greater political participation. Findings show that the effect of transnational political activity on political incorporation varies according to the stage of immigrant integration. In particular, such behaviors have greater effects at the stage of citizenship acquisition. During the citizenship acquisition phase, associational ties to social institutions play an outsized role such that immigrants with these ties are more likely to seek out citizenship. Other findings show that once naturalized, Latino immigrant political participation is affected by acculturation processes and differences in ethnic origin. Findings also reinforce the continuing importance of ethnic origin as, Mexican immigrant political incorporation is distinct from other national origin groups.Item The rhetoric of common enemies in the racial prerequisites to naturalized citizenship before 1952(2013-05) Coulson, Douglas Marshall; Roberts-Miller, Patricia, 1959-; Heinzelman, Susan SageThis dissertation examines the rhetorical strategy by which groups unite against common enemies as it appears in a series of judicial cases between 1878 and 1952 deciding whether petitioners for naturalization in the United States were "free white persons" as required by the United States naturalization act at the time. Beginning in 1870, the naturalization act limited racial eligibility for naturalization to "free white persons" and "aliens of African nativity and persons of African descent." Based on the conclusion that Asians were neither "white" nor African, many courts interpreted these provisions to reflect a policy of Asian exclusion. As the distinction between "white" and Asian became increasingly disputed, however, the racial eligibility requirements of the act raised difficult questions about the boundaries of whiteness. I examine the rhetorical strategies adopted in a series of these cases between World War I and the early cold war involving Asian Indian, Armenian, Kalmyk, and Tatar petitioners who were represented as political or religious refugees at risk of becoming stateless if they were denied racial eligibility for naturalization in the United States. I argue that by representing the petitioners in the cases as victims of persecution by the nation's adversaries, the cases reflect a rhetorical strategy of uniting against common enemies which is also prevalent in the legislative, executive, and judicial discourse surrounding the act. I argue that the prevalence of this rhetorical strategy in racial prerequisite discourse suggests that a martial ideal of citizenship often influenced racial classifications under the act and that by recognizing the ways in which this discourse adapted to the rapidly changing enmities of the early twentieth century, a rhetorical interpretation of the cases offers advantages over other interpretive approaches and highlights the value of a rhetoric of law.Item “The white man’s burden” : rhetorical constructions of race and identity in U.S. naturalization cases from India, 1914-1926(2009-05) Coulson, Douglas Marshall; Roberts-Miller, Patricia, 1959-; Murphy, Gretchen, 1971-This report examines the rhetorical strategies employed in several judicial cases during the 1920s in which the U.S. government contested the racial eligibility of Hindus for naturalization under a law providing that only “white persons” were eligible for naturalization. Through a close examination of the arguments and evidence in the cases, the report argues that the decisions in the cases were inextricably linked to the the conflict between the British and a rising Hindu nationalism movement in the struggle for Indian independence during the period surrounding World War I, and thereby highlight the significance of a wide variety of group identities to racial identification as the courts in the cases negotiated the boundaries of America’s global identity through the lens of race.